Say hello to the Vodafone Emporia RL1, a 60 quid handset designed solely for voice calls and texting - and none of that app nonsense.
Emporia RL1
And with large, clearly labelled buttons, the RL1 is not only geared toward the smartphone-phobic but also folk whose eyes and motor skills might not by up to touchscreen navigation …

Sixty quid!

Exactly

I brought a cheap £5 vodaphone Nokia a few months back and as well as calls and texts it has a torch and a calculator!

I guess technically though those are kinda classed apps though - the "find your keys in the dark doorway app" and the "I'm very stingy and insist on only paying for own food and drinks when I go out for a meal with someone rather than paying an equal share app".

eh?

Expensive

Interesting, but...

The battery life ("around 8 days", according to the Vodafone page) isn't that great - I used to have an Ericson T39, which'd routinely manage over a week on a single charge with it's default slimline battery. And the "phat" battery would literally last a month. And it had bluetooth, to boot.

With the advances in electronic/radio technology and the increase in cellular coverage. surely we can do better than barely equalling a decade-old phone?

Nice idea - but HOW MUCH?

At that price it better come with HD audio/Voice and more!

While I greatly applaud any major, Vodafone in this case, resuming the supply of "POT" (Plain Old Telephone) mobiles without all the crap and unnecessary gimmicks that come with modern phones, at the asking price it had better come with some modern improvements like worldwide standard support (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) and/or HD audio.

I mean seriously, look what you can get for that price - even cheaper if you know where to find it: the unlocked, dual-sim, quad-band eKit V600 sold by Telestial and available on Amazon.co.uk (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Telestial-Home-Roam-Kit-V600/dp/B004H2645W). It even comes with a rudimentary camera, mp3 player and video camera ...

So, you can get a full, almost-perfect traveller's phone, with greatly more features, for the same price or less than Vodaphone's offering!

but look at the size of those buttons!

Sometimes lots of extra features are not only unecessary, but actually hinder the use of a device. My mum is 70+ and has a total nightmare with her cheapy nokia mobile. The buttons are too wee and the phone does too many things. A mobile phone that works like her house phone does would be just the ticket for her. If this manages to be simple enough for old technophobes to understand then that, and it's big, easy push buttons, make this a worthwhile addition to the range of phones available.

This phone might not fit your requirements, but different people have different needs...

Why do they charge so much for OAP style phones...

You could buy a decent house on a modest wage when you were a young working person.

Generous final salary pensions

Affordable car insurance.

Discounts at hairdressers/babers and chip shops (Stop me if I'm starting to scrape the barrel)

Current OAPs are the 'golden generation', which were much better off than their parents and destined to be much better off than their children.So, yes, charge them too much for phones to help subsidise the cost of handsets for their over-burdened offspring. (It's not just greed by Vodafone, surely).

And yes, my OAP parents would disagree with almost everything I've said.

Re: Why do they charge so much for OAP style phones?

You missed free bus passes. My parents have just got theirs and basically use them so that they can go on pub crawls and not have to bother about Taxis or appointing a Des. The whole "poor OAPs" thing does get on my nerves. There are, of course, many pensioners living in awful poverty. However, there are many more living in huge houses (pushing up house prices for first-time buyers), holidaying 6+ times a year and living the dream. You just don't see them because they are never in the country long enough.

On the other hand

Quite a few of those OAP's are the reason you don't have to speak German.

What a pointless argument. As History is always written by the victors we'd all be glad we were speaking German and people would be using such empty phrases as "if it wasn't for OAPs we'd still be speaking English". The English lost the battle in 1066 so presumably, by your logic, they were a bunch of useless bastards and should be pilloried for leaving us to be run by the French for over 1000 years?

Free bus passes

Free bus passes - quite! I forgot to add that to the list.

It does, as you suggest, help them rub together those few exta pennies to go on multiple foreign holidays each year, and I am sure people earning minimum wage are glad their taxes are being used to help this critical cause.

Charge over 60's a minimum of £500 per handset I reckon.

Maybe it's because that group are the main ones arsed enough to go and vote that politicians feel the need to bribe them so heavily.

Right, back to work - there's a multi-millionaire 70 year old somewhere who needs my tax contribution.

Keap up you lot...

How much?

I picked up a Samsung e1170 for 1p incl delivery from Phones4U for just this purpose. The Samsung is 2G only, offers calls, texts and a stop-watch and has a battery life measured in weeks. It is also rubberised so easy to pick up and takes a few knocks and splashes. It even came unlokced so I could put my own SIM in it. I really can't believe this phone is 7999 times better than the Samsung.

To the OAP bashers

Maybe, just maybe most of them EARNED their current benefits with over 50 years (yes a lot started at 14) of hard poorly paid work, while still having to pay their NI contributions, and paying into (now worthless) pension schemes. They also didn't have the degree of HSE protection now considered essential, and many suffered serious uncompensated injuries.

They didn't buy things with money they didn't have. They managed their finances and did something really strange - they actually put a little money away each week so they could have the occasional family treat.

For very many years the most exciting holiday most could afford was a weekend at Blackpool. Very few could afford to run a car until the late 1960s, and the same was true of television - UHF and BBC2 was out of reach of your average worker until the middle 1970s. Most didn't even have a landline telephone, let alone the unthinkable 'portable' telephone.

I'm not a pensioner yet, but when I am, you can bet I'll grab every single benefit I've worked for, and, do you know, last year I actually bought a brand new car...

Don't shoot the messengers!

Whilst your thrift is praise worthy you are missing the point.

The generation currently retiring are a lot better off than their parents and will be a lot better off than their kids. But don't listen to me, read "Jilted Generation: How Britain Has Bankrupted Its Youth" by Ed Howker and Shiv Malik and also "The Pinch: How the Baby Boomers Took Their Children's Future - And How They Can Give it Back" by David Willetts.

There is hard evidence showing the current generation of retirees are better off by far than their parents and also their kids. How much did you have to save up as a deposit on your first home - probably 2-3 months pay ? - well nowadays its more like a years pay. But hey , you keep your prejudices about those younger than you. Hope you enjoy your long retirement because us youngsters are going to be working till our seventies and longer to keep you in the style you feel you are owed!